


Christmas Eve and Hot Chocolate

by nerdfighter721



Series: Unrelated JATP Christmas Fics [2]
Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Pre-Canon, past Alex/Luke
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:14:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28289757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerdfighter721/pseuds/nerdfighter721
Summary: “Luke’s a human heater and also cannot feel any cold.” Luke let out a disagreeing noise, but Bobby ignored him, heading back to the loft, “There’s blankets up here. Give me a minute.”“I can feel cold,” Luke mumbled.“You radiate heat, Luke. You know this.” Alex and Luke share an intimate look that reminded Reggie that they were once in a relationship, he tended to forget about that fact sometimes because they mostly kept it to themselves the whole time they were together, “We’ve been through this before.”Luke rolled his eyes, but tossed his arms around both Alex and Reggie, pulling them into a hug and barely suppressing his hiss against the cold, “I get it, I’m hot.”______Sunset Curve spending Christmas Eve together with some hot chocolate.
Series: Unrelated JATP Christmas Fics [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2071275
Comments: 3
Kudos: 50





	Christmas Eve and Hot Chocolate

**Author's Note:**

> I got this inspiration from sonsetcurve (on Tumblr) holiday event! 
> 
> Go check out their prompt list at: https://sonsetcurve.tumblr.com/post/635697102481227776/welcome-to-sonsetcurves-2020-holiday-event-i-am
> 
> Enjoy!

“Merry Christmas!” Reggie bounced into their studio, Alex trailing right behind him with his head tucked down, the drummer having picked him up from his house. Alex rushed him in and quickly pulled the doors shut behind him, shaking the cold rain out of his hair and shivering.

Luke was sprawled out on the couch, hands stretched behind his head as a makeshift pillow, large grin on his face as he faced towards the loft. Reggie looked up and caught sight of Bobby, his legs dangling down, song book open on his lap, pencil spinning around his fingers. 

“Merry Christmas!” They both echoed back.

“Towels on the chair!” Bobby said, closing the song book and pulling his legs back to get up.

Alex shook his head, shooting water out like a wet dog, “Couldn’t we just have _snow_?”

“It’s only fifty-two out!” Reggie remarked, “If you’re shivering over this, you would _not_ like the snow!”

Alex glared at Reggie but decided to just shake his head again and mumble an “okay” before grabbing a towel that Bobby had pointed out. Said rhythm guitarist climbed down from the loft and bumped fists with Reggie, “How’s it going, man?”

“Wishing it _was_ snowing,” Reggie responded wistfully, “Christmases always feel weird without the ground being coated it in.”

Luke hummed agreement, being the only other band member who wasn’t born in Los Angeles, “My cousins and I would spend Christmas building snowmen and having snowball fights while our parents cooked dinner inside.”

“I had my grandparents' whole ranch,” Reggie remembered, “Ethan and I gathered up as much snow as we could into a pile, and we would climb up a ladder and flop right into it.” He laughed, “It usually left really good imprints.”

Bobby waved his hands around, “Welcome to the City of Angels, none of that fun stuff here.”

Reggie shrugged, watched as Alex peeled off his pink hoodie and tossed it to the side, the drummer poked Luke’s legs. Chuckling, Luke scooted his legs up for a moment so Alex could sit before he stretched back out so that his feet were on Alex’s lap. Bobby tossed a towel at Reggie, which he barely caught, “Dry off. If you get sick for Christmas tomorrow, I’m pretty sure Ethan will _murder_ us.”

The four of them laughed, Ethan was Reggie’s ten-year-old little brother, “Ethan loves you guys too much,” Reggie noted, as he ran the towel through his hair, “He wouldn’t do anything to you.”

“If we got in the way of his Christmas with his big brother, he might,” Bobby commented, “Remember when Luke took the last slice of pumpkin pie at the Halloween party?”

Luke cringed, “Right, I actually thought I saw hellfire in his eyes.”

Reggie shook his head, pulling off his soaked leather jacket and perched on the arm rest of the couch above Luke’s head, “You have a point.”

“Exactly. So don’t get sick, Reggie.”

In response, Reggie threw his jacket at Bobby, who would later deny the high-pitched squeak that he let out as it smacked him in the face. Alex rolled his eyes at the two of them as Bobby grabbed the towel that Alex had abandoned to dry his own face, “What were you two doing when we came in?”

“Bobby wanted to run some lyrics by me,” Luke said, sitting up and tugging at Reggie’s arm so he slid down into the spot where Luke’s head had just been. Once Reggie was settled and twisted so that he was facing the rest of the band, Luke leaned back into his chest, but inhaled sharply and pulled away, “Oh my GOD! You’re so cold!” Reaching forward, he touched Alex’s exposed arm and hissed, “Why are you guys so cold?”

Alex glared at him, “I _said_ it was cold outside and it’s raining!”

Bobby shook his head, standing up, “Luke’s a human heater and also cannot feel any cold.” Luke let out a disagreeing noise, but Bobby ignored him, heading back to the loft, “There’s blankets up here. Give me a minute.”

“I _can_ feel cold,” Luke mumbled.

“You radiate heat, Luke. You know this.” Alex and Luke share an intimate look that reminded Reggie that they were once in a relationship, he tended to forget about that fact sometimes because they mostly kept it to themselves the whole time they were together, “We’ve been through this before.”

Luke rolled his eyes, but tossed his arms around both Alex and Reggie, pulling them into a hug and barely suppressing his hiss against the cold, “I get it, I’m hot.”

Reggie chewed his tongue to suppress a smile, but couldn’t stop the blush. He was lucky that the moment that Luke said that, Bobby tossed three thick blankets over the ledge of the loft and it sailed to them. The blankets unraveled from the ball that Bobby had put them in and got a good hit on each of the bandmates. They all yelled out at the guitarist, but he just let out a joyful laugh, and made his way back down the staircase, another single blanket for himself tossed over his shoulder.

Alex pushed away from Luke and wrapped a blanket tight around his shoulders. Reggie didn’t really want to pull away from Luke - he _was_ warm, but Reggie was still more accustomed to the colder weather than Alex was - but was saved from making that decision when Luke took the blanket from him and wrapped it around both of them, “Sharing body warmth.” He grinned, and Reggie had to remind himself to _breathe_.

Bobby tossed his blanket over the back of the chair he had been sitting in and walked into the extra room behind the chair. It was where Bobby’s parents stored random knick-knacks and where the guys shoved their cases for their instruments. After a few seconds of shuffling, Bobby arrived back with a tea kettle. Alex eyed him wearily, “What are you doing?”

“Hot chocolate,” Bobby told him, “It’s our Christmas, we need hot chocolate. I’ll also make it out of soy milk so that we don’t have to worry about yours or Reggie’s lactose issue, and no nuts allowed for you so no almond milk, either.”

“You’re too kind to us, Bobby.” Luke said to him, as Bobby walked over to the mini fridge that was sat in the corner.

“Someone needs to take care of you three,” Bobby shrugged, “Because I sure as hell don’t trust you to do it yourselves.”

“Hey!” Reggie called indigently.

Bobby rolled his eyes, grabbing the soy milk and standing up, walking over to a wobbly table near a plug as he spoke, “Am I misremembering the time that Alex didn’t look at a label on a weird ass coffee Luke bought and tried it, before realizing it had toffee nuts in it?”

“I apologized,” Luke mumbled, looking down.

“Yeah, and then we all had to take a crash course in how to work an Epi-Pen,” Bobby responded, shaking his head.

“At least I always have one on me,” Alex responded patting his fanny pack, giving Bobby a glare for bringing that up again while softly kicking Luke’s foot and turning to give him a kind smile. Reggie squeezed Luke’s shoulder, knowing how absolutely terrible he felt after that - nothing happened, thankfully, Alex hadn’t had a terrible allergic reaction, but it had _terrified_ Luke that it could’ve happened.

“My case and point,” Bobby told them, plugging in the kettle, and filling it up with the soy milk.

Alex shook his head, “ _okay_ ,” he mumbled under his breath, scooting in closer to Luke. He raised his voice a bit, “Okay, I give up on trying to keep myself warm. Let me into the hug.”

Luke and Reggie easily adjusted, Alex grabbed the discarded blanket and wrapped it around the three of them, essentially tying them all together. The drummer shook his head, “Seriously, Luke, you’re unbelievably warm.” Luke laughed and Alex elbowed him, “And don’t you dare make the hot joke again.”

“I wasn’t going to-”

“Yes, you were,” Alex cut him off, “I know you were.” He looked past Luke to Reggie, “You saw it coming too, didn’t you, Reg?”

Reggie’s eyes went wide, starting to shake his head at Alex bringing him into this, but then Luke turned to him with his big puppy-eyes and he was a weak man when Luke gave him that look. He managed to stutter out, changing his mind halfway, “Y-y-no?”

Alex rolled his eyes, although he sent a quick apologetic smile to Reggie before Luke faced the drummer again, “Ha!”

Putting his hand on Luke’s face, Alex pushed him away, but pulled away quickly with a curse, “LUKE!” Alex flailed his hand, Reggie saw the shine and attempted to hold back a laugh, “You _licked my hand_!”

Luke collapsed into Reggie’s side, laughing hard, “Don’t push my face away!”

Alex wiped his hand on the blanket, “Dude! Are you six?”

Reggie saw Bobby had hopped up onto the counter as he waited for the kettle to warm up, watching the whole thing with a fond look on his face. Luke wrapped his arms around his stomach, wheezing out his laughter, “It’s what you get!”

“So gross!” Alex whined, ripping himself out of the blankets that he had just set up as he waved his offended hand around.

“Where are you going?” Luke questioned.

Alex glared at him, “Bathroom! To clean off your nasty germs!”

Bobby laughed as Alex passed him, “I remember you two used to have make-out sessions all the time - I had the displeasure of walking in on them _multiple_ times.”

“Different,” Alex responded, before turning into the bathroom and slamming the door behind him.

The moment he was gone, Reggie allowed himself to break down into a fit of giggles as well, so the three remaining band members were all absolutely beside themselves with laughter. Not a second later, Alex yelled through the closed door, “I CAN HEAR YOU!”

“WE LOVE YOU ALEX!” Reggie responded back.

Luke wiped his eyes of the tears that had started to form and pulled away from Reggie - who tried not to immediately miss the weight of the lead singer's body against his own, “Oh, that was _great_.”

When Alex opened the door again, a couple minutes later, Bobby had produced four mugs and a bag of mini marshmallows, “I hate you Luke.” He turned to the counter, “You were prepared?”

“We’ve done hot chocolate the last three Christmases. I’m not one to break tradition,” Bobby responded.

Reggie remembered the last three Sunset Curve Christmases well. Always on Christmas eve, but they used to be held at the Mercer’s house. Alex’s mom had an interesting twist on hot chocolate that was from fresh cacao beans - the whole process she followed was completely from scratch, never just the usual packet that they sold at Wal-Mart that he was used to.

Given the recent developments in the Mercer household (read: them finding out that Alex was gay), they had basically banned the band from coming over anymore, and Reggie knew that Alex’s parents ignored him completely. Reggie also knew that, like himself, Alex only really stuck around for his siblings. The drummer adored his two sisters as much as Reggie adored his own little brother, it was the only reason that they hadn’t followed in Luke’s footsteps and ran away from their terrible homes as well.

All of Alex’s anger deflated in that single second and he and Bobby shared a kind smile, “Thank you.”

Bobby shrugged, “No problem, man.” Never being the one to initiate a hug, Bobby reached out a fist and Alex copied the motion, giving the guitarist a fist bump. Turning back to the kettle, Bobby poured the four drinks, “Help bring them to the coffee table? You’re the only one I trust to not give yourself third degree burns carrying these.” Alex laughed as Reggie and Luke whined about that, “Do you two disagree?” Bobby questioned.

Reggie and Luke both mumbled intelligible words, Alex shook his head, tossing the new bag of marshmallows at the two of them and picking up two mugs. Bobby grabbed the other two mugs and they made their way back over to the other two members of the band. Alex joined back into the warmth pile, and Bobby lazily wrapped himself in a blanket.

Luke was first with the marshmallows bag and poured an overflowing amount of marshmallows onto his, Reggie followed in Luke’s footsteps, while Bobby and Alex were more reasonable and only put a small handful in, so they could at least still see a small amount of the hot liquid below.

“Don’t drink it!” Bobby stopped as Reggie brought the drink to his mouth.

Reggie stopped, mid-tilt of the mug, and spilled a couple marshmallows onto his lap, “Why?”

“The milk just came off the kettle. You will burn yourself,” Bobby told him. 

Pouting, Reggie put his drink back down and tossed the fallen marshmallows into his mouth. Luke took the bag back from Bobby, who used it last, and grabbed a handful of marshmallows to shove in his mouth, “‘hat’s ‘art of the ‘un! Al’ost ‘urning ‘oursel’!” Luke mumbled out, around the food in his mouth.

Alex gave him a disgusted look, “Try again.”

Rolling his eyes, Luke dramatically swallowed the marshmallows, “That’s part of the fun,” He translated, “Almost burning yourself.”

Bobby rubbed his temples, “This is why I say I don’t trust you guys to take care of yourselves.”

“Please do not put me in the same category as Luke for this one,” Alex turned to Bobby.

“ _Rude_.”

Alex exhaled, in his ‘I’m trying not to murder Luke’ way, “Just wait two minutes.”

Luke shoveled more marshmallows in his mouth and offered the bag to Reggie, who grabbed a handful. The two of them attempted to toss the marshmallows into the air and catch them until Bobby took the first sip and deemed it safe for the others. 

Reggie’s first sip reminded him less of the Mercer’s Christmases - of Sunset Curve Christmas Past - and instead of a time when his home was a bit more functional. It reminded him of Christmases in Tennessee, where he was born, with his grandparents and a younger Ethan. His parents weren’t around as much, they both had big full-time jobs, so instead he was basically raised by his grandparents until his dad’s job brought them out to LA.

It reminds him of cozy mornings, up with the sun, running outside with his Nana and Pawpaw to help take care of all the animals, before winding back up inside for opening Christmas presents. His mom and dad would always be home, they’d have smiles on their faces that current Reggie missed. When Reggie would come back in, his mom would have made enough pancakes for all of them, while his dad would have heated up all the hot chocolate they could ever want. Ethan would come stumbling down the stairs last, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes with his hair sticking up at all angles. The hot chocolate would last even as they were sitting around the cozy fireplace, gifts being handed out and presents being unwrapped.

“If family time doesn’t go well at any point tomorrow,” Bobby said, breaking Reggie out of his memories, “You’re all welcome at my house, not just the studio,” Bobby gave a pointed look to Luke, who had only just ran away from home two weeks ago. Reggie knew that Luke had worried about where he was going to stay, he had first arrived at Reggie’s house that first night, but in the end decided to make the studio his new home. A part of Reggie wondered if Bobby and Luke had talked more about this when he and Alex weren’t around, “It’s also coming from my parents,” His eyes found Alex’s, to ease the drummer anxiety, “They wanted to make sure I told you guys that we would be happy to have you.” His eyes went to meet Reggie’s, “Siblings invited, too.”

The three of them stayed silent for a moment, as they let Bobby’s words come over them, Alex sniffled quietly, “Thank you.”

Reggie let out a little laugh, “I don’t think you want to see Ethan in full Christmas spirits.”

“I’ve seen Ethan in ‘Number 1 Fan’ mode - is it really that different?” Bobby raised an eyebrow, sensing the deeper meaning of Reggie’s joke.

“Not really,” Ethan made it to every single one of Sunset Curves gigs that he could - that he was _allowed_ to make it to. He had been dubbed their number 1 fan, with the second and third place going to Alex’s sisters.

Bobby nodded, “Even if it was different, we’d still love to have him and you around.” His eyes turned to Luke’s, who was looking downwards, “I’m serious, my parents are serious - we both are.”

Luke swallowed and nodded, “Thank you.”

Reggie wrapped his arms around Luke and Alex leaned over and did the same. After a brief moment, Alex turned to look at Bobby, “C’mon man. Sunset Curve hug. You need to join.”

Bobby shook his head, but no one missed the fond look on his face. He set aside his mug and jumped up, joining them in a big cuddle pile.

Their hot chocolates sat on the coffee table cooling down, but the warm fuzzies stayed in Reggie’s stomach for the rest of the night, creating new memories. Memories filled with warm laughter, shouts of friendship, the close bonds of brotherhood, and - more than anything - the joys of being around his found family.


End file.
